DistroWatch Weekly

A weekly opinion column and a summary of events from the distribution world

DistroWatch Weekly

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 173, 16 October 2006

Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! As we brace up for the brand new Fedora Core 6 later this week, the focus of this issue of DistroWatch Weekly is on the 3D accelerated Linux desktop. How usable is it? And does it bring anything more than eye candy? Find out in a blog-style report about our experiences with Xgl- and AIGLX-enabled desktops on Mandriva Linux 2007 and SabayonLinux 3.1. Also in this issue: iXsystems acquires a popular FreeBSD-based operating system for desktops, Debian developers vote to resolve controversial issues, and Fedora Core maintainers look for ways to count their user base. Finally, in the new distributions section, we introduce Lintrack, a new Arch-based project designed to run on network routers. Happy reading!

The PC-BSD project, which produces a user-friendly, desktop-oriented edition of FreeBSD, announced last week that it had been acquired by a California-based iXsystems. If the name of the company doesn't ring a bell, then allow us to quote from its about page, which claims that "iXsystems is a leading provider of high-performance computing clusters, blade servers, rackmount servers, and storage solutions to the global marketplace. iXsystems supplies FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux servers to a wide cross-section of industries." Although the news sent shivers through the PC-BSD user community, many of whom expressed fears that the previously free PC-BSD would become a commercial operating system, the project's founder was quick to alleviate any apprehensions. "It will simply be business as usual," explained Kris Moore in a statement on the PC-BSD web site. He added that "beginning Nov 1st I will now be working full-time on PC-BSD." and that the project's first beta release of the upcoming PC-BSD 1.3 should appear on download mirrors shortly. With a new sponsor, the future of this increasingly popular desktop variant of FreeBSD never looked brighter!

PC-BSD, with its web-based software installation mechanism, is leading the way in creating a desktop-friendly FreeBSD. (full image size: 199kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)

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It has become a common practise for many distributions to get entangled in some sort of a controversy prior to a new release. Last week, it was the turn of Fedora Core whose latest version is scheduled for release tomorrow (Tuesday). The problem? Some Fedora developers thought it would be a great idea to find out how many Fedora 6 installations there are. This would be accomplished by placing a tracking image on the default opening page in all included browsers and counting the unique IP addresses. Max Speck explains: "I'm tired of being embarrassed when people ask me things like 'so, how many users ya got?'' and I can't answer." As expected, the tracking mechanism wasn't welcome by all Fedora developers and the usual long discussion ranging from privacy issues to accuracy of such data quickly followed. It has yet to be decided whether the tracking image will be used when Fedora Core 6 launches, but one thing is clear - a more sophisticated mechanism for tracking Fedora users will likely be implemented in Fedora Core 7. Will other distributions follow Fedora Core? And if so, will they tell make the survey results public? As a Linux user, how do you feel about being tracked on your distribution's web site? And should we be embarrassed by the fact that we don't know how many Linux users the world has? Please comment below

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The recent round of voting to resolve various issues affecting the Debian project has ended - with the news that the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 "etch" will not be delayed. Linux Weekly News summarises the latest: "The results of the latest round of Debian Project general resolutions are in. The resolution to recall the project leader failed, while the counter-resolution reaffirming support for the leader (and the Dunc-Tank initiative) passed. The attempt to make section 2 of the Debian Free Software Guidelines apply to all programmatic work (and firmware in particular) failed, with the project voting (narrowly) for 'further discussion.' While this discussion takes place, however, the project has voted to release etch when it is ready without requiring a complete and final solution to the firmware problem first."

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The unfortunate events preceding the arrest last week of Hans Reiser on charges of murder were widely reported in the various Linux and mainstream media. Although the 42-year old developer of the popular ReiserFS journalled files system is still considered innocent at this stage, those involved in investigative journalism have already dug up enough dirty laundry to cast a shadow on the private life of the developer whose products are widely deployed by thousands of Linux users. ReiserFS has been the default file system on SUSE Linux and Slackware Linux for years and it is the only available file system on the latest version of Linspire. But its future of seemed uncertain even before the current allegations against the lead developer - ReiserFS version 3.x seems no longer maintained, while technical reasons have so far prevented its new and much improved version 4, which is a complete rewrite, from being included in the Linux kernel. In the meantime, Novell has announced that it will switch to ext3 starting with openSUSE 10.2, a decision undoubtedly boosted by the fact that its more advanced cousin, ext4, has now been included in the experimental Linux kernel tree and is expected to be "production ready" within the next 6 - 9 months. Is this the end of ReiserFS as we know it?

Web Log

3D desktop computing with Mandriva and SabayonLinux

Last week I decided to switch distributions. Since most people who spend hours in front of their computers every day wouldn't entertain a major change like this without a valid reason, it's only natural for you, dear reader, to ask why. So here goes the rationale, consisting of three points. Firstly, I've been running Kubuntu for the last 1.5 years and although it was mostly a satisfying experience, I did encounter a few hard-to-diagnose annoyances with version 6.06 (e.g. my router's random crashes at least once a day, or the fact that a simple act of plugging in a microphone into the on-board sound card would simultaneously disable both the keyboard and the mouse), which I didn't observe in Kubuntu's previous two releases (and which is not necessarily Kubuntu's fault, I might add, but I won't know for sure until I try another distribution or at least another kernel).

Secondly, as a web master of a Linux/BSD distribution watch site, I thought that, in the interest of greater objectivity, I should switch my main production distribution every few months. Although I routinely install many new releases on my test machine, there is a difference in playing with a distro for a few hours and running it full time on a production box. And thirdly, I was curious about the new 3D effects with Xgl and AIGLX that have been embraced by several distributions in recent months. This was mostly to see whether it was possible to take advantage of the 3D features in ways that would increase my productivity, or, as experienced by other Linux users, whether I'd get annoyed by the effects after a while and would prefer to have them turned off.

With these three objectives in mind, I decided to give my second hard disk to the recently released Mandriva Linux 2007. Since I happen to be a VIP member of the Mandriva Club (don't ask me how and why), I downloaded and installed the PowerPack edition for the x86_64 architecture. For those who keep the score, here are the specifications of the machine where the latest Mandriva was about to be installed: AMD64 3500+ processor (2.2GHz), K8N Neo2 (Socket939) mainboard from Micro-Star International, 2 GB of DDR SDRAM, 1 x 250 GB and 1 x 120 GB Maxtor hard disks, Sony DVD/CD rewritable drive, 2 network cards, and NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card.

After the uneventful installation routine, I spent the first three days customising my working environment, installing the necessary software, and migrating settings and files from my previews distribution. In between the tedium, I also used my new operating system to update DistroWatch and to do other routine tasks. Overall, I have to say that I am mostly pleased with the end result. Mandriva Linux 2007 PowerPack is a solid distribution, with a great collection of open source and proprietary software, and relatively few bugs. I was especially pleased with the way everything worked out of the box, including Flash and other common browser plugins and most popular media formats and encrypted DVDs. With Kubuntu (and other Ubuntu flavours), one normally has to search around the Internet for documentation to get these things going or use one of the third-party scripts available for download. No such hassles with the PowerPack edition of Mandriva 2007.

My second positive impression of the distribution came after I discovered its seamless integration of 32-bit and 64-bit environments. Last time I used a 64-bit distribution was almost two years ago when I installed the unofficial Debian "sarge" port for AMD64. Back in those days, the recommended way of getting 32-bit applications working on a 64-bit system was to create a minimal second system in a chroot, with all packages that wouldn't compile on the 64-bit platform (e.g. OpenOffice.org) and all the binary-only software (e.g. browser plugins and media support, Java, Opera, Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, etc) placed in there. This turned out to be a real pain to maintain. In later months, when I switched to Kubuntu, I decided to go back to the i386 edition, just to avoid the hassles with a mixed 32-bit/64-bit system. Luckily, it looks like the x86_64 Linux has evolved a great deal since those early days: Flash now displays fine in Firefox, the 32-bit Opera installs on a 64-bit system without any complaints, and all audio and video formats work just like they do on x86 machines. A native port of OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 is now also available.

But no distribution is perfect and Mandriva Linux 2007 is no exception. One major problem I encountered was the refusal of K3b to burn DVD images (it doesn't have a problem with burning CDs, though), giving nothing more than a cryptic error message. This is a major showstopper, which I haven't been able to solve yet - mainly because I haven't had the time to search for answers. A less critical issue (and a more amusing one) is the fact that Mandriva's hardware detection routine adds a new network interface to the system at every boot, so after rebooting my machines several times during the last three days, the system now has eth1 (a connected network card) and eth16 (a disconnected card). The latter will become eth17 after the next reboot. Other than that, there are minor issues, such as the presence of IceWM in the KDM login menu, even if IceWM is not installed, and the extremely unstable development build of Liferea which I downloaded from the "contrib" section found on the Mandriva mirrors.

Now on to my experiences with Xgl. I am writing this newsletter on my new Mandriva 2007 system with Xgl and Compiz enabled (the supposedly better AIGLX module would require the latest beta driver from NVIDIA, the 1.0-9xxx series, which is not yet available from either Mandriva or the PLF repository). The overall experience has been quite pleasant so far; although Mandriva's errata page lists a number of problems with some applications running under Xgl/Compiz, I've encountered no major problems. Nevertheless, the switch to a 3D accelerated desktop requires a major shift in established habits, which takes a while to adapt to. The cube definitely has its use as a way to visualise the location of running applications (I certainly find it easier to imagine where my open windows are than with the standard virtual desktops) and I absolutely love the Exposé way of accessing running applications - it's just so much faster than Exposé on a non-accelerated desktop. On the negative side, Xgl/Compiz doesn't map the four sides of the cube to virtual desktops; in fact, specifying more than one virtual desktop in the KDE Control Centre has no desired effect. Also, logging out of KDE means that the desktop promptly discards my way of arranging windows on the four active sides of the cube, so after a new log in, they all open on the same side. Annoying, to say the least.

Overall though, I am one of the persons who enjoy the concept of a 3D desktop. There are voices in the Linux community saying that this is nothing but useless eye candy, but I happen to believe that a 3D accelerated desktop has a potential to increase one's productivity on our computers once the new habits become entrenched. And in response to those who argue that a 3D desktop on a flat 2D computer screen is a contradiction in terms, I have observed a rather interesting phenomenon. It has to do with my cockatiel, a 3-year old Australian parrot that frequently occupies one of my shoulders while I am busy working (running a web site from home can be a lonely affair, hence the reason for keeping a friendly pet). While normally the little bird would pay absolutely no attention to any rapid changes of colours and scenes on a computer or TV screen, once I started rotating the cube, he suddenly showed obvious signs of heightened alert and fear. To the bird, the 3D cube represented a potential danger, even if it appeared on a 2D screen of which he had no fear before. Based on this observation, it seems that what really matters to our senses is the illusion of a 3D desktop, not the fact that it runs on a flat screen. In other words, we do see a cube, even if we know that it's not.

As a further experiment with a 3D desktop, I also installed SabayonLinux 3.1 DVD on the second hard disk, on a partition just after Mandriva 2007. This version of SabayonLinux has a major advantage over Mandriva 2007 in that it offers the very latest and greatest in 3D desktops, including the newest beta driver from NVIDIA, together with AIGLX and the new Beryl compositing window manager (a recent fork of Compiz). These features are integrated into SabayonLinux 3.1 and work out of the box, even while run from the live CD/DVD. The overall integration of Beryl with KDE, GNOME, XFce on SabayonLinux was superb and I really enjoyed the fact that the four active sides of the cube were mapped to four virtual desktops. There was a large number of new effects, some of them more useful than others, that could be activated on the fly (on Mandriva 2007 any configuration changes required an X server restart). I also found the Beryl configuration tool slightly more intuitive and logical than Mandriva's drak3d (which, incidentally, required root privileges to launch). Neither of these configuration tools was perfect though - both lacked useful documentation and the only way to find out what each checkbox did was to guess and experiment.

That said, SabayonLinux 3.1 wasn't an entirely pleasant experience. One of the disappointing aspects of the distribution was the comparatively ugly default font (see screenshots below). SabayonLinux still uses the Bitstream Vera font family, which is no longer maintained and it's not a particularly pretty sight in the year 2006. On the other hand, Mandriva's DejaVu fonts looked stunning. Also, SabayonLinux's boot times were considerably longer than one would expect - even while booting from the hard disk, it took 2:52 minutes to get from the boot prompt to the KDM login screen (the same took 1:10 minutes on Mandriva 2007). Logging out of KDE and re-entering the KDM login screen also took long - long enough to warrant a leisurely trip to the coffee machine! Of course, SabayonLinux still lacks Vim, but this problem is easy enough to rectify once the distribution is installed on the hard disk.

The default font in SabayonLinux 3.1 (on the left) and Mandriva Linux 2007 (on the right).

In conclusion, my three days of experimenting with Mandriva Linux 2007 and SabayonLinux 3.1, and their respective 3D desktop implementations, resulted in the following observations:

Mandriva Linux 2007 PowerPack is an excellent distribution. It works great out of the box and, despite of what some Mandriva developers and contributors would like you to believe, is definitely ready for the desktop. However, some bugs remain and the €70 for the downloadable edition (that's without a printed manual) does seem a little on the expensive side.

The 3D Linux desktop is evolving at a neck-breaking speed and I have no doubts that we will hear a lot more about it in the coming months. It's not just for making an impression on your Windows-using friends though; I am of the opinion that a 3D accelerated desktop can increase computer productivity in new, dramatic ways.

The x86_64 editions of many Linux distributions have matured considerably over the last couple of years. While two years ago, running a 64-bit edition gave more headaches than benefits, the latest Mandriva Linux 2007 (and probably also other distributions that release editions for the x86_64 processors) work transparently. If you are considering a new computer in the near future then I believe that AMD64 is a way to go. And a distribution optimised for the 64-bit processor is noticeably faster than the one built for a 32-bit system; just compare the times it takes to re-sort a directory with a large number of files in Konqueror on the two systems to see what I mean!

If you are interested in trying out the latest and greatest in 3D desktop acceleration, then SabayonLinux is what you need to download. This is the most cutting edge of any of today's Linux distributions; it comes with the newest graphics drivers, many 3D applications (e.g. Google Earth and some demo games), graphical configuration tools for 3D effects, and non-free codecs and other media support. It will entertain you for hours.

There has never been much chance of me switching back to Windows or turning to Mac OS, but with the latest advancements on the Linux desktop front, the probability of that ever happening is virtually zero. Linux is no longer doing the catch-up to other operating systems; quite the contrary, it's leading the way. It's without a doubt the most exciting OS platform available today!

The Scientific Linux development team has announced the availability of the fourth update of the distribution's 4.x series: "Scientific Linux 4.4 was officially released. We want to thank all those tested, re-tested, and worked with the developers. This release has several enhancements that wouldn't have been possible without everyone's help. We hope you enjoy the release. Scientific Linux 4.4 has several improvements over 4.3; these include: better support for wireless with MadWifi and the ipw3945 driver; fuse, fuse-smb, fuse-sshfs; and some scientific programs, namely CFITSIO, Numpy, and R. Scientific Linux release 4.4 is based on the rebuilding of RPMs out of source RPMs from Enterprise 4 AS, including Update 4. The release notes can be found here." Read the brief release announcement for more details.

Litrix Linux 6.10 has been released. Litrix is a Brazilian distribution and live CD based on Gentoo Linux, with a custom control panel and complete localisation into Brazilian Portuguese. Some of the new features and changes since version 6.4 include: new configuration panel; improvement in the installation program; new interface for configuring ADSL connections; added Limeware as a P2P application; new boot menu entry Memtest, a memory diagnostic utility; new visual appearance; improved security with root no longer the default user; addition of WINE for executing Windows applications under Linux. More details can be found in the release announcement (in Portuguese).

Jeremiah Cheatham has released a new version of Myah OS: "Myah OS 2.3 SE is now available for download." Some of the more interesting changes since version 2.2, released less than a month ago, include: "Firefox 2.0rc2 with support for Flash, Java and embedded video; embedded video is also available within Konqueror; settings for DVD playback have been optimized for best possible playback; 3D drivers for ATI and NVIDIA have also been optimized; a fresh Ksplash theme has been created to integrate with the bootsplash theme; several more mouse themes are now available; KDE 3.5.4 is now included as well as Linux 2.6.18; the boot process is much faster and smoother; CUPS printing is now up and running...." Read the complete release announcement for more details.

The openSUSE project has released an updated set of installation CDs and DVDs of SUSE Linux 10.1: "I'm happy to announce the availability of SUSE Linux 10.1 'remastered'. This release combines the 10.1 GM and all online updates that we have released for 10.1 so far, including libzypp, which should make the installing and working experience much smoother for everyone. We have created new CD ISO images and supplied delta ISOs from the goldmaster. The non-OSS DVD images will show up next week, we had to retract and will remaster. If you are running SUSE Linux 10.1 already, there is no need to download these images at all. Just do an update from our update repository to get all our security updates. This remastered media are useful for new installations." Here is the full release announcement.

The first stable build of pfSense, a m0n0wall-inspired, FreeBSD-based firewall system, has been released: "The pfSense team is excited to bring you our first ever real release! That is right, 1.0 is finally blessed and is making its way to the mirrors now. We have tried really hard to eliminate all bugs but with any software we expect to find some as this release will be used by a lot more people. With that said, there are a few problems that you should be aware of. Check this Wiki article to see the release caveats. Other than the few small items mentioned in the above Wiki article 1.0 is solid and performs quite well. We are rather proud of our work. So grab 1.0 and install it this weekend and head over to our forum and post your experiences, good or bad." Here is the brief release announcement.

Puppy Linux has been updated to version 2.11: "Puppy version 2.11 is out. Puppy 2.10 was the first Puppy to use LZMA compression for the 'pup_210.sfs' Squashfs file (the file that has all of the applications). We found however that it doubled the start-up time for each application, not very noticeable on a modern fast CPU, however very much a problem on older hardware. Thus, for 2.11 we have gone back to the standard GZIP compression. Version 2.11 is basically an improved 2.10. Apart from reverting to GZIP compression, this release has various bug fixes. There is also an 'xorgdrvrs' ISO that includes the extra X.Org basic video drivers." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information and a complete list of changes.